Gyms, Rivals and Blast Offs, oh my!
by Zerodone
Summary: Lunala brought the Protagonist of Red/Blue Rescue Team and her Teammates back together in the Anime world, using her ability to travel between the worlds. Now they would like to know why the legendary Pokémon left them there in the first place.
1. Chapter 1

Zoey checked the clock on her phone, as she and her four companions were making their way across the empty campus, each of them carrying a bag filled with snacks and drinks for the party they would have tonight. The sun had long set, indicating that it was only a couple of hours until the new year kicked in. Originally Zoey had planned to spend New Years with her family. But stuff had gotten in the way and now she was stuck spending the last day of the year with her friends from university. Not that it was a bad thing, but well, it wasn't family.

"Oh shit, we forgot the beer!" Brian suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to stop, except for Zoey, who went on as she spoke.

"I bought it yesterday, forgotten?" she asked in a sarcastic fashion, her gaze not leaving the screen of her phone. Brian sighed in relief, while Britanie and Stanley rolled their eyes.

"Oh yeah, completely forgot," Brian replied with a chuckle.

"You only helped me stash it all away," Zoey also reminded her fellow student.

"Jesus, Brian. Your brain has more holes than Swiss cheese," Britanie stated as a matter of fact.

"What else is new?" Zoey asked in a rhetoric fashion.

"Your ass, that's what. Jeez Zee, did you put on some weight over the holidays?" Stanley asked with a grin. He received chuckles from Britanie and Brian, but only a shrug from the young woman he had spoken to.

"At least I have a view people can enjoy. When they see your ugly butt, they run faster Britanie on her way to an all you can eat, buffet."

"Shots fired," Brian intoned.

"Hey, at least wait with the flirting, until you're drunk," Britanie intoned with a grin. "But man, I put on some weight too. I gotta hit the gym next year."

"Come on, let's be honest. Nobody goes through with this kind of stuff. At best you'll give up within the first week," Stanley told the girl. "Do it like me. Don't try. That way, you won't be disappointed."

"If your motto is "don't try", why are you still trying to get your diploma?" Brian asked.

"Everyone needs a hobby," Stanley shrugged.

"I thought your hobby was looking at girl's assets?" Britanie asked in a half-serious fashion.

"Nah, that's just casual observations."

Zoey let out a snort at the comment. "Well "observe" all you want. Doesn't change the fact that you won't be able to stick anything inside."

Since the quartet was making their way through the university campus, they passed many of its buildings, each specializing in a specific field or fields of study. Building H was nothing special in that regard. This was the place where things about economics, marketing and similar subjects were taught. However, this particular building also happened to be a place where specific incidents took place.

In the past four weeks leading up to the winter holidays, students just started losing consciousness out of nowhere. It only happened in this particular building, making many believe the reason for those students fallen unconscious was because of a gas leak. But as of yet, it hadn't exactly been confirmed that the cause was a gas leak. Nevertheless, the building was closed to the public until further notice.

The four students stopped right next to Building H, looking at the police-tape hanging in front of the doors.

"Man, am I glad I study law," Britanie said, as she looked through a window inside the building.

"You know, you hear about accidents and stuff on the news all the time. But when it happens right next to you..." Stanley trailed off.

"It's something different, huh?" Brian finished.

Zoey put her phone away and placed the bags she was carrying on the ground in order to be able to rub her hands. Mentally she chided herself for not wearing gloves.

"Just be glad this didn't happen to you. I can tell you from experience that getting knocked out from seemingly nowhere is not fun."

After hearing this particular piece of information, the three friends looked at the fourth one.

"Say what?" Stanley asked. "You got knocked out cold once?"

"What happened?" Britanie inclined.

Zoey put her hands into her pockets and looked away. "It happened when I was a teen. I don't remember what exactly happened, mind you, just that I felt like shit when I woke up in the hospital." The girl speaking shivered a little due to the wind.

"The hospital? Didn't they tell you afterward what happened?" Brian asked, now getting worried that he was getting into territory that was none of his business.

"Well..." Zoey hesitated. "The police... they believe I was kidnapped."

"SAY WHAT?!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

Three voices exclaimed at once, causing Zoey to cringe. This kind of reaction was normal, whenever she told someone about the "incident", as rarely as she talked about it anyway. Technically speaking she wasn't even lying. She said the police believed that she had been kidnapped. Granted at first they had thought she was a runaway, which was at least in a small portion right, they had dismissed this possibility rather quickly because of a multitude of reasons.

Zoey mentally prepared herself for the onslaught of questions that were about to come and got the lies she would consequently tell in order. However, before any of the humans could say or scream anything, someone intervened with their own voice.

"My, my, they seem quite concerned." A melodic voice echoed throughout the campus, causing all four attendees to jump in the place they were standing in.

"Wh-wh-what was that?!" Britanie stuttered, looking around frantically.

"It... sounded like a shriek?" Brian sounded a little unnerved.

"Pretty high pitched for a shriek," Stanley commented relatively calmly, at least compared to the other two.

"Shriek?" Zoey gave her three companions a questioning look. "What do you mean with shriek? I don't hear any shrieks."

"Oh, don't mind them, my dear," the same voice spoke again, causing the four humans to look around frantically.

"There it was again? What was that?! A bat?!"

"Bats sleep during the winter!" Brian shouted back. "What is this, a prank?"

"The fuck, are you talking about?" Zoey asked the humans.

"After all, these three never learned our language," the voice finished.

"Our language?" Zoey echoed, gaining her a look from all of her friends.

"Oh, you know. The pokémon language."

Before anyone could properly react to the voice, the humans felt a chill running down their spine. The source of this sudden drop in temperature made itself quickly apparent, as it floated upwards out of the ground.

Now, while Zoey did definitely not belief in ghosts, she _knew_ very well that ghost pokémon were a real thing. When you were fighting against them, they had the nasty tendency to hide inside the walls, the ceiling and even the very ground itself, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on you. Zoey very much doubted this one needed to result to any kinds of tricks or gimmicks in order to puree all of the humans present.

If human jaws were detachable, they would have all hit the floor as soon as they saw Lunala rising into the air. Neither the anime, nor the games did her appearance any sort of justice. Her main body looked like it was made out of the night sky itself. Her golden highlights shimmered even in the streetlights, giving her an even more otherworldly appearance. And then there were her shining, reddish-pinkish eyes. Zoey couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she somehow found the gaze of the legendary pokémon both threatening and soothing at the same time.

"Son of a..." Stanley muttered.

"This... is this real?" Britanie asked, cowering right behind Brian.

"Hehe, did you guys spike my drink or lunch or dinner?" Brian asked, sounding like he was going to be hysteric soon.

"It took some time, but it looks like I finally found you," Lunala spoke, her gaze directed at Zoey.

"M-me?" Zoey stuttered, ignoring her cowering friends, who could only hear high pitched, yet melodic shrieks.

"But of course," the legendary replied, saying it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "While your race as an entirety is interesting to watch, you're the one I was looking for. Not an easy feat, mind you, seeing as there are so many of you."

"W-w-why are you looking for me?" Zoey asked, feeling her heart hammering in her chest. Subconsciously she was reviewing everything she knew about Lunala. She was a legendary pokémon, meaning she was automatically stronger than the average Joe. She was a psychic as well as a ghost-type, meaning if Zoey wanted to hurt her, she would either use her pocket knife, hoping it would count as a steel-type attack or a stick, hoping it would count as a grass-type. Lunala was stronger in the special attack department and her ability protected her somewhat as long as she was undamaged.

"What the hell, Zoey?! Why are you talking to it?!" Britanie shrieked, but was ignored by the other woman.

"H-how about we don't make any sudden moves?" Stanley suggested, fear being evident in his voice.

Lunala ignored the other humans in favor of Zoey. "Oh, the reason for me looking for you is very simple. It is the exact one you're thinking about right now."

Without warning, Lunala flew closer to the humans. Zoey reacted and held up her arms, whilst her friends behind her took several steps backwards. For a minute or so, Zoey kept her arms up. When she noticed that the legendary wasn't doing anything to her, she lowered her guard and saw that the pokémon was giving her a kind smile. It also turned out that her body was so low it was partially clipping through the ground. It almost looked like Zoey was inside a glitchy video game.

Before the human could make any further thoughts, she found herself shrieking in surprise, when Lunala tickled her under the chin. The bat-like pokémon quickly rose to the air again, giggling like a little girl that just pulled a prank on her older sister.

"What the heck was that for?!" Zoey shouted, holding her finger on the place Lunala gently scratched her with her claw.

"Oh, I just thought it would be more easier for us to have a conversation, if you weren't staring with awe at me," Lunala explained with a chuckle. "While your attention on me is quite flattering, I'm afraid my interests lie within the opposite gender."

The human's face turned slightly red at the implication. "Shut up! You're the one who appeared out of nowhere!" The human pointed an accusatory finger at the flying pokémon. However, only a moment later she relaxed her stance and put her hands inside her pockets.

"But, yeah, I probably needed that," the human conceded, looking up at the ghost and psychic-type.

"Happy to be of help," Lunala replied. "I am also glad to be able to meet the one who saved our world."

"Ehehe... yeah," Zoey scratched the back of her head. "It wasn't that big of a deal, really. Just go to Rayquaza and tell him to shoot a gigantic rock out of the sky. I'm pretty sure there're lots of others who could have done that."

"Don't sell yourself short, Zoey. You saved many of my kin during your time in our world. Even nowadays, the pokémon speak highly of your team's accomplishments."

Zoey felt her heart racing a mile a minute at this point. The sheer fact that she was speaking to a legendary pokémon after such a long time should be enough to make her fall unconscious. Not to mention there was a hope burning inside of the human, a hope of returning to the ones she was forced to leave behind. However, the woman tried to keep her emotions hidden. As much as she wanted to explode here and there, she had received her fair share of battle scars from legendaries that had lost their temper.

"Naturally, I just had to meet the one responsible for saving us all. And luckily for me, my unique abilities allow me to do just that."

"Wow," Zoey spoke in genuine surprise. "I'm flattered, I really am. I... haha, I'm sorry, but this is so surreal. Hahaha!" The human was bending over from her sudden bout of laughter. "It's... it's been so long since I have talked to a pokémon, let alone a legendary."

The other three humans were saying something behind Zoey. However, at this point, she had stopped listening to them as well and was fully focused on the legendary in front of her.

"I understand. It must be hard for you to keep your excitement in check," Lunala replied, smiling brightly. "And given that you now know that I am capable of traveling between the worlds, isn't there a particular question you should be asking me by now?" Lunala asked in a rhetoric question, her smile changing into a smirk.

The human woman looked away and tried to calm herself, by taking in some deep breaths. But it was pretty much for naught, as her entire body was shaking in excitement at this point in time.

"Well... WAAHH!" The human screamed when out of the blue the legendary decided to pick the human up, using her psychic abilities and placing the hairless monkey firmly on her back.

"What are you doing?!" the aforementioned human shouted in slight panic, causing Lunala to laugh.

"Why, what does it look like?" the legendary asked, after her fit of laughter. "Your friends are waiting for you. And it is clearly written on her face that you want to see them again too."

Eyes widening, Zoey could see Lunala's third eye appearing on her forehead. This could only mean one of two things: she was either using her signature move or opening an Ultra Wormhole. Given that there are no real targets in range, with the exception being Zoey's friends, who were screaming their lungs out at this point, it could be only one thing.

Now, Zoey had survived many things during her time as a pokémon and she had also seen many things. But, reality itself being torn apart in front of her eyes and a rift to another world appearing in place of it, well, this was something new to her.

"Wait!" she desperately screamed. "You can't just take me like that! My family will-"

But it was too late. Lunala was either not listening or not caring to the human's complaints. With a loud screech (and a bloodcurdling scream from Zoey), the legendary pokémon dived into the Ultra Wormhole, leaving the human world and its inhabitants behind. The only evidence that she had ever been there, the Ultra Wormhole, disappeared just like she and the human did.

The only evidence? Well, not really. Humans did have that pesky habit of taking out their phones and recording anything and everything interesting happening around them. But it's not like that would make a difference on the long run.

* * *

Zoey didn't know how long her trip through the Ultra Wormhole lasted, nor would she be able to fully recall it. A mixture of her emotions going haywire at the time, plus all of the flashing lights made it hard for her brain to comprehend everything that was going on around her. Add to that the rather rough landing Lunala subjected the poor human to, then one could forgive her for blacking out.

Lunala smiled sheepishly to herself, when she saw the human lying on the ground and not getting up. She guessed she could have been a little bit more careful with her mode of transportation and maybe she should have given Zoey some time to comprehend the entire situation. But then again, this wouldn't be the first time the human would have been thrown into the cold water. Plus, she would have her friends to help her out very soon.

Knowing that her work was done for the moment, Lunala smiled one last time down at the human, before taking flight heading to wherever her instincts would take her.

Of course, the sudden opening of a hole in the sky didn't exactly go unnoticed by the local population. Indeed the phenomenon in addition to the appearance of the huge, unknown pokémon caused almost everyone to metaphorically jump ship and run, crawl or fly as quickly as possible away from that particular area. However, there were two exceptions.

Two pokémon who observed the happenings from afar were now heading directly where they saw the big, dark pokémon coming out of the hole. Ignoring the shouts and warnings of their kin, both of them continued on their way with a determined look in their eyes.

The first of the two pokémon was a Blaziken. A two-legged, bird-like pokémon with red, white and yellow feathers and a lengthy, athletic body. It was a fire and a fighting-type, capable of using powerful, as well as superheated kicks against its foes. While technically not capable of flight, this pokémon can jump so high, it might as well be an unofficial flying-type.

The second pokémon was an Absol. A four-legged, white furred pokémon, with red eyes and a black scythe growing out of the head. It was also called the "disaster pokémon", due to its ability to sense incoming disasters of various degrees. Examples of this ability are: sensing an incoming storm, knowing when a bridge is about to collapse, and so on. Absols are very strong physical fighters, though they usually rarely engage in a fight themselves, preferring to live a reclusive lifestyle.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at their intended destination and when they did, they immediately noticed two things. One the pokémon they had spotted earlier was already gone. And two, there was another pokémon just lying on the ground, one they had not seen previously.

"We missed Lunala," Blaziken stated the obvious, his eyes fixated on the unconscious pokémon. "But who is this? And what pokémon is it for that matter?"

The two conscious pokémon approached the unconscious one, examining it from head to toe.

"I have never seen a pokémon like this," Absol stated calmly. "And it is wearing a lot of clothing," the dark-type pointed out.

While clothes were nothing new to pokémon, they usually satisfied themselves with a bow or a scarf or something similar. However, this one was clearly overdoing it. Its head and hands appeared to be the only free parts of its body, showing white, yet not entirely white skin. It also had brown hair, about shoulder length.

This pokémon wore a green scarf, some kind of very thick black blanket with buttons holding it together. It also wore some blue trousers and had its feet covered up by something black and leathery that reached up to half of the bottom part of its legs.

"I wonder what she is doing here," Blaziken thought aloud. "Could it be that she was brought here by Lunala, like us?" he asked his companion.

"It is very possible," Absol agreed. "But if we want to be sure, we'll need to wake it up."

"Well, sleeping on the ground like this can't be comfortable," the fire and fighting-type commented, before crouching down and giving the other pokémon a gentle shake. Apparently, this was already enough to wake it up, as it let out a groan and opened its eyes, revealing them to be brown in color. The pokémon on the ground held up one of its hands in front of its eyes, seemingly getting blinded by the sun.

"Where am I?" she asked, as Absol and Blaziken could finally identify the pokémon's gender by her voice.

"Are you alright?" Blaziken asked in concern, causing the pokémon on the ground to turn her head. For a moment she was silent, until she let out a sigh and dropped her arm to the ground.

"You know, I should be freaking out, but given what just happened to me-" She didn't manage to finish her sentence, as her stomach let out an unhealthy gurgle sound, surprising the dark and fire-type.

"Urrgh," the pokémon sat up and held her arms over her stomach. "I feel like I have been on the fastest rollercoaster in the world three times in a row. Damn you, Lunala."

"Well, that answers that question," Absol said out loud.

"Yeah, Lunala has brought her here, too. Just what is this pokémon up to?" Blaziken asked, turning his head to his companion. "First she appears out of nowhere in the middle of the night, then she transports us who knows where and now we find out we aren't the only one?"

"Puzzling, indeed. Maybe she knows something," the dark-type stated and stepped in front of the unidentified pokémon. Said pokémon had her face contorted in pain, but was obviously fully focused on the two pokémon beside her.

"Lunala brought you here, too?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Indeed," Absol replied. "But her motives elude us. Perhaps you could-"

The female pokémon let out another groan, bending over slightly.

"I think we should get her some medical attention first," Blaziken said, while holding his arms out, ready to catch the pokémon, should she drop to the ground. "Can we get anything for you? Do you need water, maybe?" he asked.

"Its fine," the female pokémon smiled, still sounding like she was in pain. "I just... I just need a moment or two, until my stomach calms down." She let out an awkward chuckle.

"If you say so. Just say something, if you need anything," Blaziken told her.

"That's very nice of you."

The two pokémon standing watched the female one with concern, as she slowly took in a deep breath and released the air after holding it in for a couple of seconds. She repeated this mantra a couple of times, until she relaxed her overall posture.

"Okay, I think I am better," the female of the trio told the male ones. "Thanks for sticking with me there."

"It's not a problem," Blaziken replied with a smile. "We're all kind of in the same boat, anyway. We might as well stick together."

"Speaking of which," Absol spoke up "do you perhaps know why Lunala has brought us to this place? All she did was appearing out of nowhere all of a sudden and telling us there was someone who was waiting for us."

"Really?" the female one asked and took a look at her surroundings. However, there wasn't really much to see for her. All she knew was that Lunala had dropped her inside of a forest of some kind, but there weren't any landmarkings she could orientate herself on.

"Well, it was kind of similar for me. She appeared out of nowhere, spooked the crap out of me and some friends that were with me and offered me to bring me somewhere I had wanted to go for a long time."

Absol and Blaziken gave each other a look.

"Somewhere you wanted to go for a long time?" Blaziken repeated.

"Y-yeah," the female smiled sheepishly. "It's... a little complicated. There are some friends I have been meaning to visit for a very long time. But..." she trailed off for a moment. "Let's just say, they live very far away from my place. Plus I couldn't just leave my family like that." The woman took in a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. "Not that Lunala gave a damn, apparently. She just grabbed me and took me here without even giving me the chance to pack a few things, let alone tell my family that I might be out of reach for a very long time," she finished with a deadpan expression.

Both male pokémon blinked in surprise when the female one finished her story. Absol cleared his throat, before speaking up again.

"I see. This pokémon's behavior is very strange," he commented. "However, I noticed you said she wanted to send you somewhere you have been meaning to visit. Does that mean, you recognize these woods?" To the dark-type's disappointed, she shook her head.

"Not really. I mean, we could be pretty close to the place I have in mind and I simply have never visited these parts of the woods, surrounding the place. I'd need to take a look around." The female pokémon put her hands on the ground and pushed herself of it. Now standing at full height, it became obvious that she was only slightly smaller than Blaziken.

"Since we're all in the same boat, like you said," she spoke the second part to Blaziken "how about we have a look around together?"

"Sounds good!" Blaziken nodded cheerfully. "Oh, by the way, my name is Blaziken."

"And I am Absol. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Haha, nice to meet you, too. Been a while since I had any pokémon companions. I am Zoey and as you might have already guessed, I'm a human."

The reaction that followed from the last sentence wasn't something that Zoey, the human, was expecting. Both pokémon looked like she had just slapped them in their face and had recoiled from the impact.

"Huh? Something wrong?" she asked. But while the question mark was still lingering over her head, her brain finally went into gear, as she took a hard look at the pokémon in front of her.

One of them was a Blaziken, which was a funny coincidence since her best friend was a Torchic. The other was an Absol, equally funny because she and Torchic had been very close friends with an Absol who had saved their life in a dire time of need.

Zoey would later proclaim it was the radiation of the Ultra Wormhole that kept her brain from putting two and two together, but once the penny dropped, it was her turn to recoil from the none-existent slap.

"No way in motherfucking hell..."


	2. Chapter 2

"Z-Zoey…? Is that… you?" Blaziken stammered through his beak, his voice having a way deeper tone than the human remembered from back in the day. Back then, when they first met, his voice at least partially resembled that of an average bird, but now? She would associate his voice more with that of a lion, than a bird.

"Hehe, long time no see, huh?" the human replied with a small giggle. "I guess… I take it, I am not really recognizable like that." She gestured down her body with her hands. "Then again, you don't exactly look the same as well."

Blaziken looked down himself for a moment, before looking at the human in front of him. Zoey had never described what a human looked like, back when she was still a pokémon. Then again, Blaziken had never asked her what one looked like. He himself only knew humans through myths and childhood fairytales. All he got from them was that humans seemed very similar to Machokes.

The fire-type found himself broken out of his thoughts when out of nowhere Zoey wrapped her arms around his body and pressed her chin onto his shoulder.

"I missed you," she whispered, nuzzling his cheek.

"I missed you, too," Blaziken replied, wrapping his own arms around the human.

Absol in the meantime had a smile plastered onto his face, as he observed the two old friends holding each other. The reaction of both partners was way more subdued than he would have imagined. He often thought about how the two would behave if they ever met again and he had been sure they would be rolling across the ground or hugging each other so hard, they would have a hard time breathing.

On the other paw, however, the two didn't make any indications that they planned on letting go of each other anytime soon. If Absol didn't know any better, he would say the two were lovers who had come back together after an insufferable time of separation. In the back of his mind, he could already hear a certain Grass-type gossiping. Maybe it was good that Lunala only took him and Blaziken with her.

Seeing as none of the two had any plans on letting go anytime soon, Absol decided to have a closer look at his old team-leader. Like Blaziken he had only heard about humans through legends and myths and to be entirely honest, human myths had never interested him in the slightest. When it was revealed to him that Zoey was indeed one of those humans from the legends, well, the shock had stunned him to silence for a couple of minutes.

Back then, of course, Zoey had been a cute and adorable Pokémon. A cute and adorable Pokémon that somehow had the strength and the wits to defy the legends themselves. Now she looked anything, but adorable. If anything she seemed very mature, which was to be expected given how much time passed since he last saw her. Her hair looked soft and silky, giving her an elegant touch. He also noticed some sweet scent around her, which at least partially covered up her very own smell. Curiously, despite having changed species, her personal scent had not changed a bit. There were other scents around her, like the sweet one attached to her body. Her clothes smelt a bit like snow, too.

While he was storing away all of this information, Blaziken and Zoey finally let go of one another and turned to the dark-type, who had been quietly sitting on his haunches, waiting patiently for the two to break up.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you," Zoey intoned, before going on her knees and wrapping Absol into a tight hug. The disaster pokémon smiled and leaned into her shoulder. His horn accidentally entangled itself into her hair.

"It is good to see you again," Absol said, enjoying how Zoey's hands stroked his back. The two didn't spend five minutes hugging each other and the human let go relatively quickly of her white-furred friend. "You seem to be doing well, all things considered."

"Haha!" Zoey laughed good naturally. "Doing well? After that rollercoaster ride Lunala put me through, I'm surprised the world isn't spinning."

"Yes, that was an uncomfortable experience," Absol agreed.

"Are you alright? You aren't hurt, are you?" Blaziken asked, concerned.

"Eh, I think I am okay? My head still hurts a little. All of those flashing lights and such. How are you two holding up?" she asked.

"We're okay, everything considered," Blaziken replied. "Nothing compared to Rayquaza's Hyperbeam." He let out a small laugh, which subsided rather quickly. "But, we have no idea why that Pokémon took us here. She just… all of a sudden showed up and dragged us through this portal-thingy."

Zoey crossed her arms, nodding. "Yeah, same here. She just showed up all of a sudden, gave my pals and me the scare of our life and then dragged me here. Although she did say, she had been specifically looking for me."

"I think it is safe to say she wanted all of us to meet here," Absol said, to which the other two nodded.

"Well, I am happy to see Zoey again, but did she have to fly us all the way here?" he asked and looked around. "Where is here anyway? This doesn't look like Tiny Woods or any place we have been to."

Zoey crossed her arms, frowning. "Beats me. The only thing I can say for certain is that we're neither in your nor in my world."

"Say what?! Really?!" Blaziken exclaimed.

"What makes you say that?" Absol inquired, trying to keep his composure.

Zoey gave each of her old friends a look before she went on explaining. "Mmm, where do I start? The abridged version is that Lunala and Solgaleo are two pokémon with extraordinary abilities. They can open so-called Ultra Wormholes, which lead to other worlds."

"Other worlds?!" Blaziken repeated. "So, we're like, in a completely different world?!" he shouted, to which Zoey nodded.

"I think? I can't be sure at the time," Zoey spoke uneasily.

"Given our lack of further information, we have to go with this for now," Absol opined. "But if this is the case and Lunala wanted us to meet again, why did she go through all the trouble and put us into this world, instead of simply bringing Zoey back to ours?" he inquired.

"Yeah, you're right." Blaziken crossed his arms. "That doesn't make any sense, does it? Also, she didn't really give us a decision about whether we wanted to go or not. Not that I would have said no or anything, it's just the principle of the matter."

Zoey let out a snicker after hearing this comment. Absol and Blaziken gave their former leader each an inquiring look.

"What's so funny?" the fire and fighting-type asked.

"Sorry," Zoey snickered again. "I'm just feeling so nostalgic all of a sudden. Here I am, waking up in another world, surrounded by Pokémon with no time whatsoever to adjust to the situation. It's like when Blaziken found all the way back in Tiny Woods."

It was Blaziken's turn to chuckle. "It kind of is, isn't it? All that is missing is for a Butterfree to fly by and ask us to help her save her son."

The two of them laughed a bit at their memories, with Absol smiling fondly at their interactions. However, his smile vanished in less than a second, when his disaster senses suddenly made themselves known.

"Someone is in danger," he said out of nowhere.

Zoey looked down at him in confusion, while Blaziken had an idea immediately as to what the dark-type meant. "Your disaster senses?" Zoey's eyes widened in realization when she heard that and immediately grew worried when Absol nodded in confirmation.

"Someone is in danger of being attacked. I can tell they're safe now, but that will change if we don't intervene." The dark-type turned around. "It's this way," he proclaimed and ran ahead.

"Whoa, wait for us!" Blaziken exclaimed and ran after Absol.

"Guys!" Zoey shouted and started running. "Wait up! Human legs are not as strong as Pokémon legs!"

* * *

Absol and Blaziken did eventually stop. Partially because they realized that they had pretty much abandoned their human friend and partly because they found themselves at the edge of the forest. The two Pokémon found themselves overlooking a vast array of hills with a single pathway leading to a small town in the distance. There were trees, flowers and even smaller forests that surrounded said in. The land around the city directly was being cultivated with something, although the two Pokémon were too far away to really make anything out.

"Good to see that this world is inhabited," Absol commented, looking at the buildings in the distance.

"Your disaster senses wouldn't have acted up if no one was living here," Blaziken pointed out.

"True, I suppose," the dark-type acknowledged.

"Well, I see a few Pokémon down there. Any idea who of them is tickling your senses?" the fire and fighting-type asked.

Ignoring the joke, Absol took a look around. "It's hard to tell. At times like these, I wish my senses would be more specific, but alas they're not. However, what I do know is that we're close."

"In that case, maybe we should wait here and observe the area." Blaziken turned his head around and frowned. "We kind of did leave Zoey in the dust, back there."

"True, but I sense no danger coming after her. Still, perhaps it would be best if one of us goes back and looks after her, while the other waits here and keeps an eye out for-"

Absol found himself interrupted by a scream coming from the not so far distance. Both rescue team members were surprised when they found out that the source of the voice was yet another human. It had short black hair, wore some kind of red and white hat, some blue and black garments and a green rucksack. The human was marginally shorter than Zoey, perhaps a pre-evolution, and he had a Pikachu running by his side. And the reason the two of them were running was that they were being chased by a vast flock of angry Spearows.

"Or we could go in, save the day and then find Zoey," Blaziken took over, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Whatever works, I suppose."

Absol and Blaziken immediately jumped into action, running directly towards the human and the Pikachu. On the way, they noticed multiple groups of Pokémon just standing on the sidelines and watching the proceedings going on. Quite frankly, the two couldn't understand why not even one of them bothered to at least try and break the situation apart. Admittedly those were a lot of Spearows, but still, it was the principle that counted.

Setting those things aside, it didn't take long for Blaziken and Absol to get into position, partially because the chasers and the ones being chased came precisely from the opposite direction.

"What the-?! Get out of the way you two!" they heard the Pikachu shouting.

"Whoa! What kind of Pokémon are those?!" was the human's question. Judging from the tone of his voice, the two Rescue Team members guessed that this human was a young male. A very young male, if the height difference was anything to speak off.

"Should we ask as to why they're attacking them?" Blaziken first pointed at the flock and then at the Pikachu and the human.

"Let's save the questions for after they have become docile," Absol opined. "Or would you rather have a repeat of the Tauros incident?"

"H-hey! We promised never to bring this up again!"

"I am not so sure anymore. I think we should at the very least give our leader a little status update. She is no doubt curious as to what we have been doing all those years."

While Absol was snickering at his partner's expense, who looked ready to punch the dark-type, the human and the Pikachu had passed the Rescue Team and came to a full stop.

"What are you two doing?! Run!" the human shouted, doing not much running himself.

"Are you two blind or something?!" the Pikachu asked in exasperation.

Ignoring those two Blaziken and Absol turned their attention at the incoming flying-types. Simultaneously the two took in a deep breath and let out storms of fire and ice respectively. Naturally, the Spearows were not expecting to get burned and frozen alive at the same time although that was only true for those caught in the middle of the onslaught. Absol was aiming his Blizzard to the left and Blaziken his Flamethrower to the right. Since Blaziken's attack didn't have as large of an area of effect as Absol's Blizzard, as such he had to readjust his aim now and then. Luckily for him, the Spearows were practically frozen in shock and just hovered in mid-air, making them easy pickings. Finally, the flying-types understood that they were outmatched and high tailed out of the area. Of course, those Pokémon that had already been hit by either fire or ice-attack were already lying on the ground, knocked out.

Absol and Blaziken ceased their attacks at the same time and viewed the outcome.

"I think we might have overdone it this time..." Blaziken stated lamely, seeing as the left side was frozen over and the right side on fire.

"Yes, I think you're correct. If you would excuse me, I better put out those fires." Absol quickly ran towards the burning fields and used his Blizzard to put them out quickly, before they could do any further damage. Blaziken in the meantime turned towards the Pokémon and the human, who were both gaping at him in awe.

"Are you two alright?" he asked.

None of the two responded. Both Pokémon and human alike had their jaws dropped onto the floor. Almost automatically, the human held up a red device of some sorts and pointed it at the fire and fighting-type. To Blaziken's surprise, the red thing started to talk.

"NO DATA AVAILABLE!"

"Say what?" the young human asked, looking down at his red thing.

"What was that?" Blaziken asked, slightly bewildered. "Did that thing just speak?"

"Hey, don't worry big guy," the Pikachu spoke up, causing Blaziken to look down on him. "That thing is just a Pokédex. It's one of those human thingamajigs. It gives humans information about us Pokémon when they point it at us," the Electric-type explained.

"Wow. Humans have something like that?" the bigger Pokémon asked. "Zoey never mentioned anything like that. Then again, she did lose her memory back then..." he trailed off.

"Zoey? Sounds like a human name," Pikachu muttered mostly to himself. "Is this Zoey your trainer by any chance?" the electric mouse asked curiously.

"Trainer?" Blaziken repeated. "No, our trainer would be Makuhita. He had a dojo in our hometown, and we trained there regularly."

"Makuhita?" Pikachu tilted his head. "Is that another human?"

Blaziken shook his head. "Makuhita is a Pokémon. I guess you've never met a Makuhita, have you?"

"No," Pikachu admitted, wrapping his head around the idea of a Pokémon owning a public building. "I have lived all my life here in Kanto. Never gotten around much, besides the local woods, you know?"

The human boy in the meantime was watching the entire exchange with a mixture of fascination and sheer shock. His eyes also occasionally wandered to Absol, was finishing up putting out all of the fires, freezing the local fauna in the process. The boy had every intention of catching the two obviously powerful Pokémon, but before he could even reach for his Pokéballs, he found himself interrupted by a woman's voice.

"Are you fucking serious?!"

The human, Absol, Blaziken and Pikachu snapped their heads into the direction the voice had come from. They saw Zoey standing at the edge of the forest, which the two other members of the Rescue Team had exited earlier. Even from a distance, everyone could see that Zoey was catching her breath, seeing as she was slightly hunched over.

"Oh dear," Absol just came back from his task and watched with a worried gaze as his leader quickly approached their position. "Zoey doesn't look too happy."

"I'm pretty sure if we explain everything to her, it will be fine," Blaziken assured his partner.

"Who is she?" the human boy mumbled to himself. The group of four watched, as the female human approached them, arms crossed and giving her two team members a hard look.

"Are you two serious?" she repeated, completely ignoring the Pikachu and the other human. "I lose sight of you two for five minutes and this place already looks like a mini Ragnaröck just happened!" The human woman gestured not only at the destroyed landscape but also at the grounded Spearows. "Mind telling me why you two decided to go this overboard? You could have just used Razor Wind and that would have done the job."

Absol blushed a little, as he didn't consider this attack. Done rightly, Razor Wind could have theoretically taken out most of the attacking Spearows and done less damage to the environment.

"Oh... we... didn't think about that..." Blaziken admitted, scratching his cheek.

Zoey huffed and rolled her eyes at the comment. "Well, at the very least you put out the fires. The last thing we need now is getting the local authorities on our asses." She turned her gaze towards the other human and the Pikachu. "Especially considering the kind of situation we're in right now."

Zoey returned her gaze to her two teammates. "With that being said, I take it he's the guy that got your senses all riled up?" The question was directed at Absol, while Zoey was pointing with her finger at the boy.

"That is correct," the dark-type nodded.

"Not surprising," Zoey muttered. "Considering who he is..." She put a hand on her forehead. "Damn it, I'm getting a headache already."

Absol and Blaziken looked at each other uneasily. "Er... maybe we should introduce ourselves?" Blaziken asked, pointing at the Pikachu and the other human.

"Right," Zoey nodded and turned around. "Sorry about ignoring you, like that. But I have one hell of a day behind me and from the looks of things it won't be over soon enough."

"Uh..." the human boy said unintelligently.

"Anyways, the name's Zoey. And you already met Blaziken and Absol," she pointed at both of her teammates.

"Uh... oh, yeah! My name is Ash Ketchum! Up and coming Pokémon master!" the young boy proclaimed with a raised fist.

"A Pokémon master that just managed to piss off a bunch of Spearows?" Zoey asked with a wry grin.

"Yeah, some master," Pikachu huffed, giving Ash the stink eye.

"H-hey, it's just my first day," Ash waved with his hands frantically. "Everyone makes mistakes, right?"

"Like throwing a rock at an aggressive Pokémon?" the Electric-type asked.

"He threw a rock at a Spearow?" Blaziken asked, crossing his arms.

"No wonder they were attacking him. Spearows are known for defending their flock in an almost fanatical fashion," Absol stated. "You two are lucky we were here."

"You tell me," Pikachu sighed. "You really saved our hides back there. We owe you one."

"Huh, looks like my Pokémon and your Pokémon get along very well," Ash stated, gaining him looks from each Pokémon present. Zoey repressed the urge to sigh, as she could feel another headache coming. She needed to sort this thing out and fast.

"Are you a Pokémon trainer, too?" the boy asked, not giving Zoey any time to think of a way to ditch the boy for five minutes.

"No," she answered honestly. "I am not."

"Huh?" Ash was confused. "But those two..." he pointed at the Pokémon behind Zoey.

"Are my friends," Zoey finished for Ash. "Look, you probably have a ton of questions, but can they wait for a second? I need to check up on those two real quick. We got in a bit of a scuffled earlier, so to speak, and I'd rather be sure nothing happened to them."

Before either of her two Teammates could react vocally, she shot them a look that said to just go with it.

"Uh... sure?" Ash answered, his confusion reaching levels where he himself was getting a headache.

"Great! Now then..."

Zoey practically dragged her two teammates a little bit away, ignoring their protests as well as the questioning gazes she was receiving from Pikachu and Ash. Once she was sure she was out of hearing range of the boy, she let go of her two partners, who were giving her bewildering looks.

"What are you doing, Zoey?! Why did you lie to him just now?" Blaziken asked.

The human leader didn't answer immediately. She felt the need to rub her temples, before answering. "I'm gonna drop dead by the end of the day," she groaned. "Okay, listen carefully, guys and keep your voices down."

Absol and Blaziken were very confused at the sudden order but nodded none the less.

"See, I think I have figured out just where Lunala abducted us to."

"So, is this here your world after all?" the dark-type asked.

"No, however, I know which world we're in."

"Y-you do? But how?" the fire chicken asked in surprise.

"That will take a long time to explain. Time we don't have at the moment," she emphasized the last word. "Listen up, you two. I am probably the only human that can understand Pokémon. Other humans can't."

"They don't?" the fire-type questioned. "But, how come you can understand us?"

"My guess would be it has something to do with her transformation into a Pokémon," Absol suggested.

"Whatever it is, Ash won't understand a word you say. All he'll hear is you two repeating your own name over and over," Zoey explained. "Another thing about Ash is that he is a very important person."

"Very important? How so? Is he the son of a town leader or something?" the fire-chicken asked.

"If only it were this easy. I can't explain right now how important he is, but let me give you a metaphor. Remember the meteor?"

Both Pokémon and even Zoey shuddered just thinking about the damn rock. That had been a very close call.

"What about it?" Blaziken asked uncomfortably.

"Let's just say, if he were to die for some reason or other," Zoey pointed at Ash "it would be the same as us just letting the meteor hitting the ground."

Both Pokémon looked at her with wide eyes.

"Are you serious?" Absol asked, straining his disaster senses to try and see what she meant.

"Deadly," the female human nodded. "Now listen up, the plan is this. We'll be following Ash for now, until we get a chance to properly talk to each other. Don't talk to me directly until then and any questions you have, safe them until we have the time. I promise I'll tell you everything later, okay?"

Zoey knew she gave her partners less than satisfactory information. However, from the moment she had seen Ash Ketchum of all people from the top of the hill, she knew that she needed to take control of the situation as quickly as humanly possible. Unknowingly Absol and Blaziken had fucked up significant events and now they had to fix it. Zoey may have no idea as to why Lunala dropped all three of them into this world, but the human knew she would have the biggest chances of meeting the legendary again when sticking to Ash Ketchum. After all, he was a magnet for trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

When Zoey and her two companions returned to Ash and Pikachu, the young woman took the time to study both of them. Ash was way smaller than the anime made him out to be. On TV he looked like a young teenager, but now seeing him standing in front of her, Zoey could see that he was still ten. The gloves he wore looked a bit silly in her opinion, while the cap design was pretty cool. She noted that his blue vest had a small red stain on the right side. Maybe it was ketchup?

Pikachu on the other hand almost looked a hundred percent like the anime originally depicted him. Not fat, but pretty chubby overall. It looked like so far Pikachu had led an easy life or at least that was Zoey's guess. Maybe the mouse just ate a bit too much for however long the electric-type had stayed at Oak's lap. As far as she was aware Pikachu's backstory had never been explored.

"Sorry about that," Zoey spoke to the young boy, flicking a few stray hair strains behind her ear. "I'm pretty sure you're pretty confused about basically everything."

" _Not sure about that guy, but I sure am,"_ Pikachu commented, eyeing the human woman curiously.

"Uh... yeah, well, sorta..." Ash stumbled over his words, scratching the back of his head. "But that was so cool! How your Pokémon handled all of those Pidgeys with ease!" the young boy shouted. Before Zoey could correct Ash on the statement that Blaziken and Absol were not "her Pokémon," the boy went on.

"I mean the two took out all of those birds like it was nothing to them! They don't even look tired! I haven't even seen that on TV!"

The boy suddenly ran in front of Blaziken, who took a small step back, when he found himself inspected from top to bottom. "Wow! I have never seen a Pokémon like this."

 _"Eh... is that a compliment?"_ Blaziken asked carefully.

Absol looked at the young human with a raised eyebrow, still trying to figure out what made this human so special that it would be a catastrophe if something suddenly happened to him.

"And this one looks awesome, too!" he shouted and walked in front of Absol. Ash attempted to pet the dark-type on the head, but the Pokémon quickly sidestepped, not understanding the human's intentions.

"They have names, you know?" Zoey spoke up, walking in between her two teammates.

"Ah... uh... right!" Ash snapped his fingers. "Absol and Blaziken, correct?"

Zoey snorted in amusement. While Ash certainly got the names right, he had pointed at the wrong Pokémon each time. Her teammates looked at the young boy like he was an idiot.

"You have it the other way around," the human woman explained with a wry grin.

"Oh, oooops." Ash chuckled, looking embarrassed.

 _"Pokémon Master..."_ Pikachu spoke sarcastically. _"I knew I should have gone with the girl..."_

Zoey rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement. "Anyways, mind telling us why a bunch of Spearows were chasing you two?" she nodded both at Pikachu and Ash.

"Well, I wanted to catch one..." Ash began explaining.

 _"Catch?"_ both Absol and Blaziken asked at the same time. Zoey quickly took hold of Blaziken's claw with her left hand, while putting her right one on Absol's shoulder.

"But Pikachu didn't listen to me and so I tried it without him." Ash slumped over. "I just don't get why..."

"Uh huh. And what did you do then? Just threw a Pokéball and see what happens? Attack one of them with a stick?"

"Uh... no. I threw a rock-"

"Congratulations. You just learned Rock Throw," Zoey spoke cheekily.

Pikachu snorted in the background. _"I guess humans are not completely useless."_

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked, not getting the joke.

"It's a rock-type move. Sheesh, I know you're just starting your journey, but I'd think you'd at least know the basics."

"Hey! I know a lot about Pokémon!" Ash protested loudly, glaring at the woman.

"Calm down, boy. I was just making a joke," the woman rolled her eyes. "But in all seriousness, instead of throwing rocks at random Pokémon, shouldn't you try to bond with your partner first? Get to know each other, hang out at some spots and generally have some fun?" she asked.

"Uh...I..."

Zoey resisted the urge to shake her head once again. She mentally needed to remind herself that this Ash was an immature brat and that he and Pikachu had yet to properly bond, especially since their initial bonding session got interrupted by her teammates.

"Alright, here's the deal kid. The three of us were on our way to Viridian City, anyways."

 _"We are?"_ Blaziken asked.

 _"Looks like it,"_ Absol answered, giving his leader a curious look.

"Do you mind if we talk on the way? I was planning on arriving there before sundown."

"Uh... sure," Ash agreed, before suddenly exclaiming. "That's right! I don't have time to stand around or else Gary is going to be a Master before I have the chance!"

Ash turned around and was about to head off, but found himself stopped by Zoey, who easily held him back, by grabbing his backpack.

"Hey, let go of me!"

"Easy there, hothead. You have plenty of time until the Indigo League starts. The other guy won't have the chance to become the local champion until that time."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Ash blinked, almost dropping to the ground when the woman let him go. He completely forgot that he had just been watching the finale the night before. The next league was still a ways off.

Pikachu in the meantime shook his head, wondering if maybe now the best time to run for the hills was. But then he remembered that he still owed the two exotic Pokémon one for saving his hide just five minutes earlier. And while the electric-type had no love for humans, he would feel just plain dirty if he ran away now. As such, he tagged along with the fire and the dark-type as the Pokémon and humans made their way into the forest.

* * *

"So, you're really not a trainer?" Ash asked as he was trudging along with the woman next to him.

"Nope," Zoey shook her head. "As I said earlier, Blaziken and Absol are my friends." The woman threw her jacket back a little bit and pointed at her waist. "See? No pokéballs."

"Huh? But if you didn't capture them, how did you become their friend?" Ash asked.

"Do you throw a pokéball at humans in order to become friends?" Zoey asked in rhetoric fashion.

"Er... no?"

"Then you have your answer." The woman looked back at her team and gave each of them a smile. The two pokémon looked confused but were listening intently to the conversation the two humans had with each other. "I met Blaziken when I was sixteen years old. Back then, he wasn't a Blaziken, but a Torchic."

"Torchic?" Ash asked, taking out his Pokédex. He typed a few things into the device until a message came out of it. "NO DATA AVAILABLE!"

"What? Again?!" Ash complained. "Is this thing broken?"

Zoey snickered. "It's not broken, Ash. Your Pokédex is just lacking the necessary data."

The young boy looked at the adult, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Simple." Zoey raised a finger. "Starting trainers receive a Pokédex that contains information about Pokémon living in their local region. In your case, you have the Kanto Pokédex, which only lists Pokémon that are native to the Kanto region. Absol and Blaziken were first discovered in Hoenn, so you don't have the info as of yet."

Ash grumbled something incomprehensible, as he looked down at the red device. He almost appeared like he had been insulted. "Why would the professor do that?"

"Who knows?" Zoey shrugged. "I guess he wasn't expecting you to meet Pokémon that live in an entirely different region that early. In any event, like I said, I met Blaziken when I was sixteen. And like I said, he had been just a Torchic back then."

Ash contemplated the answer for a couple of seconds, looking at the static screen of his Pokédex. Deciding it wasn't worth leaving that thing turned on, he flipped it close and stored it in his pocket.

"You know, back at home my friends call me the 'Walking Talking Pokédex.'" Zoey grinned. It wasn't the most sophisticated nickname her friends came up with, but it was fitting given her... enthusiasm with the Pokémon franchise.

"Really? They called you that?" Ash asked. "Why?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." Zoey raised her arm and pointed it at Pikachu, who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Pikachu, the Mouse Pokémon. Pikachu is an electric-type Pokémon and the evolved form of Pichu. It evolves into Raichu when using a Thunder Stone. Pikachus store electricity in their red pouches, which it can discharge into powerful electric blasts. They will sometimes attempt to cook a berry that way. If you find a scorched berry in the forest, it might have been because a Pikachu charged too much electricity into it."

Zoey took in a deep breath.

"Pikachus usually have the ability Static. However, some Pikachus have the ability Lightning Rod. Pikachus are speedster Pokémon. They will usually try to outmaneuver you, before shocking you from your flanks. You should never, ever touch a Pikachu's tail. The limb is so sensitive that if you touch it, there is a high chance you get shocked, simply because you surprised the Pikachu. Pikachus can use the sensitivity of their tail to scan their surroundings, feeling the small electric fields of Pokémon and humans alike."

Another breath.

"A female Pikachu's tail has the shape of a heart. Pikachu belongs to the egg groups field and fairy. Pikachu is the most well-known Pokémon in the entire world. It has gained so much fame that some Pokémon, notably Mimikyu, are jealous of it. Pikachu has an exclusive Z-Move, called Catastropika. The basis for this move is Volt Tackle."

Finally finished, Zoey clapped her hands together and looked at the local audience expectantly. Ash pretty much looked like he just had his brain fried. His face was frozen in place with his mouth slightly open. A bit of drool was leaking out.

Pikachu for his part wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. On the one hand, he felt a little weird out, after hearing just how much this human knew about his species. Maybe this was the feeling of finding out that you have a stalker, only the stalker took the form of a scientist.

On the other hand, there were little tidbits of information that intrigued him. Specifically, this Z-Move thing the human mentioned. He had no idea what a Z-Move was supposed to be, but he figured he could ask his fellow Pokémon for the information. Speaking of them, Absol and Blaziken appeared to be very surprised for some reason.

 _"Wow, I didn't know Zoey knows so much about a single pokémon,"_ Blaziken commented, scratching his beak. _"I mean, she practically knew almost nothing when I met her."_

 _"Keep in mind that Zoey had been suffering from memory loss, back when she was leading our team,"_ Absol reminded his partner. _"It might be that she had always known so much about Pokémon or she studied up on our species once she returned home and regained her old memories."_

 _"Oh yeah."_ Blaziken snapped his claws. _"I didn't think about that. I wonder what else she remembers."_

Pikachu curiously tilted his head, as he listened to his fellow Pokémon. They were basically saying that their friend, who had just revealed was a genius when it came to Pokémon, had been suffering from memory loss when she met the two Pokémon. He wondered what the story behind that was.

Luckily for him, he didn't need to wait long for an answer to come. Zoey snapped her fingers in front of Ash's face, bringing the boy back to reality. Said boy shook his head, before beaming in wonder.

"Wow! You sure know a lot about Pokémon!"

"Eh, my family thinks I'm obsessed," the woman replied with a shrug. "But after what happened to me, they should know better."

"After what happened to you?" Ash asked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

A smile appeared on Zoey's face, as she stopped seemingly out of nowhere. Ash stumbled a little bit, looking at the woman. He was about to ask why she stopped, when he saw her wrapping her arms around Blaziken and Absol, crouching down a little for the latter Pokémon. Both Pokémon didn't know why their leader was doing this, but neither minded the gesture one bit.

"Only the best thing in the world," the woman smiled, referring to Ash's first question.

"The best thing?"

 _"What does she mean?"_ Pikachu asked the other two Pokémon.

 _"I think I have a pretty good guess,"_ Absol replied.

Zoey let go of her two friends and gave Blaziken a wink. The fire-type nodded in silent understanding, smiling brightly as he did so.

"Wanna hear a story? It might kill some time, while we walk?"

"A story? What kind of story?" Ash asked.

"A story about how I became friends with two of the best Pokémon in the entire galaxy," she said in an exasperated manner.

Both teammates of hers smiled at the unexpected, but not unwelcome compliment they were receiving.

* * *

"So here I was, confused, disoriented, in an area I didn't recognize, no human soul in sight and that Torchic that kept hammering its beak against my head," Zoey started off her story, with everyone listening intently. "I don't know how long I have been lying on the ground, but that tiny Pokémon was very insistent on waking me up. So I look down on it, annoyed as one would expect from getting once head repeatedly pecked on, but all that thing does is chirping away happily and looking at me with those expectant eyes."

Zoey gave Blaziken a slight glance, who grinned sheepishly. He himself thought about the part where she forgot to mention that she knocked him over from his repeated pecking.

"That's one way to wake up," Ash said with an amused grin.

"Oh, you have no idea, Ash. While Torchic was just chirping around, presumably talking to me in its language, I tried to get a grip on my situation."

Blaziken and Absol subtly glanced at one another. Both knew they were wondering the same thing, namely why Zoey was altering the facts so much. Like she didn't mention that she got transformed into a Pokémon, which had been a massive deal for her. The only thing keeping the two quiet for the moment was the fact that Zoey promised to explain everything soon.

"You must consider Ash. I wasn't immediately aware that I had lost almost all of my memories. Have you ever had a night in which you couldn't sleep and the next day, you're barely able to distinguish breakfast from lunch?"

While Ash wouldn't have gone with this comparison, he understood the woman perfectly. He always felt like that, when he watched TV for too long. His mom would always scold him for staying up too long.

"Anyways, I was standing around for a couple of minutes, trying to get my thoughts together. But when I noticed that almost all of my memories were gone?"

Zoey looked at Ash with a serious expression, unnerving the boy a little bit. "I panicked. Have you ever seen anyone panic?"

"Uh… on a few TV shows…" Ash said, trailing off.

The older human shook her head. "It's nothing like on TV. I was genuinely scared. I was looking left and right, wondering where I was, desperately trying to recognize anything in the area. That one tree over there, that oddly shaped rock, that hill, anything."

Zoey took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "My heart must have been going a mile a minute. I was trying to remember how I got to this place, only to realize I didn't know. I didn't know where I was, how I got there and soon enough I realized I knew as good as nothing."

"R-really?! How did that happen?" Ash asked, his eyes wide.

Zoey was about to answer, but stopped herself, reconsidering for a second. "To be honest, I have no idea," she said in a small tone. "I had no injury on my head, so it couldn't be the result a concussion."

"Uh… what's a concussion?" Ash asked, clearly not knowing the word.

Zoey raised an eyebrow at the boy's ignorance, but quickly remembered he was just that: a boy. A ten-year-old, who didn't know any big words. Fanfiction really warped her perception of anime characters.

"It's when you get a blow to the head and your brain gets damaged. All kinds of things can go wrong when your brain gets damaged, including the loss of memory."

"Uh huh," Ash nodded, now understanding the seriousness of the topic. "But you didn't have a con-… one of those injuries, right?" he asked.

 _"Seriously?"_ Pikachu muttered in the background.

"No." Zoey shook her head. "But that doesn't change the fact that my memories were still gone. Poof, vanished like nothing." She made a gesture with her hands, waving them in front of herself. "The only thing I could remember was my name. And if I'm honest, if I had not remembered that, I'm pretty sure I would have broken down, crying. I was very close to doing just that."

The human boy frowned after hearing this. Pikachu frowned as well, listening intently to the story. He could not even begin to imagine what it was like to his memory, with only having a name to latch onto. He felt for that woman.

"Luckily for me, I had someone there to comfort me."

As if on cue, Blaziken wandered up right next to Zoey and wrapped an arm around his friend. The woman smiled warmly and leaned her head onto his shoulder, enjoying the warmth the fire-type radiated.

 _"You almost choked me to death, while I was trying to calm you down,"_ the fire and fighting-type remembered. In response, Zoey gave her best friend a light jab to the side.

"Blaziken, of course, noticed I was freaking out. The poor guy, he didn't know what to do with me."

Ash looked very interested at the fire-type. In his opinion, this Pokémon looked awesome, even more so than the Gengar he saw on TV just the night before.

"You must remember, back then, he was just a Torchic. Torchic are small Pokémon, even smaller than Pikachu over there," Zoey nodded in the direction of the electric-type. "And yet, he somehow tackled me to the ground, jumped on top of me and almost nuzzled me to death."

 _"I was just trying to calm you down. And you wouldn't hold still…"_

"Why was he nuzzling you?" the younger human asked.

"To calm me down, of course. Why else?" The human woman said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know like a mother cuddles a baby when it's crying?"

"Oh!" Ash's mouth formed an "o" in understanding. "I guess that makes sense."

Zoey shook her head in slight amusement. She was about to go on with her semi-fake story when she noticed that they had arrived at a lake. It wasn't a particular big lake, like the one in the north her family had visited that one time with friends. But still, it was there with all the natural plants you would see at a lake. Zoey would have coming up with the name of even one of those things, aside from grass of course. Her gaze wandered around a little bit, searching for something or rather someone.

The rest of the group came to a stop, too, admiring the view.

"Oh yeah! Me and my friends would always come here in the summer and take a swim!" Ash exclaimed. "I wonder if my mom packed my swim trunks…"

 _"Oh good. I was getting thirsty anyway,"_ Pikachu said and made his way to the water. Ash watched curiously as his Pokémon walked to the water and started drinking from it.

 _"What are you looking for?"_ Blaziken asked. But Zoey wasn't paying him any attention. Instead, her gaze went towards the sky.

"It's cloudy," she commented. "It's going to rain soon."

Blaziken himself looked up and saw that indeed clouds had started covering the sky. Judging by how dark they were there was a good chance they'd experience a storm pretty soon. It was odd that there was no wind in the area, as the wind usually came before the storm. Then again, Blaziken had been to some pretty weird places that had even more bizarre weather patterns. A little rain or even a storm wouldn't kill him anyway. Sure, as a fire-type it would be annoying, but not more so than having your mailbox full of junk mail.

Absol had noticed the change of weather, as well. However, his disaster senses didn't warn him about anyone getting struck by lightning anytime soon. With nothing to worry about, at least at the moment, he too decided that a little refreshment was in order. As he got closer to the lake, he noticed the water rippling in a particular place. That was nothing unusual. When water-types emerged from underwater, they usually caused some ripples to appear. These ripples here even increased in size, making Absol stop. The dark shadow appearing in the middle of the ripples pretty much confirmed that a huge Pokémon was coming out. Not wanting to get his fur soaked, the dark-type waited, until with a huge splash, a Gyarados appeared from the lake. Poor Pikachu got soaked to the bone.

 _"AHH! WHAT A GRATE NAP!"_ the Gyarados exclaimed.

Absol chuckled shamelessly at Pikachu's misery. Hearing the noise, Zoey, Blaziken and Ash turned towards the great sea serpent, with the latter freaking out.

"Waaaahhh! That's a huge Pokémon!"

Despite the boy flailing around, he managed to take out his Pokédex with no problem and activated the device.

"Gyarados, the atrocious Pokémon. This Pokémon is known for its evil temperament. Caution is advised. Gyarados' teeth can break rocks and its scales have been reported to be harder than steel." The device finished its explanation.

"Harder than steel?" Zoey asked, looking at the yawning water and flying-type. "I know Gyarados are tough nuts to crack, but they aren't that tough, are they?" she asked no one particular.

 _"HEY!"_ The Gyarados shouted, having heard Zoey speaking. _"ARE YOU SAYING I AM WEAK!?"_

"Whoa! Get away, Zoey! It's coming at you!" Ash shouted. Since he couldn't understand Pokémon, the only thing he saw was Gyarados turning its head towards the older human and yelling at her.

"Easy there, big guy. I didn't mean you're weak. I just think the info in the Pokédex is slightly exaggerated," Zoey explained calmly.

Seeing as the water serpent was still growling at the human, Pikachu decided that it might be best to hide behind the trees and wait until the situation blows over.

 _"OH YEAH!? WHY DON'T YOU TAKE A LOOK YOURSELF!? HEY, YOU!"_ Gyarados now addressed Blaziken. _"GET YOUR HUMAN TO COME CLOSER. I WANNA SHOW HER HOW TOUGH MY SCALES REALLY ARE."_

 _"Uhh…"_ Blaziken was confused. Why was he supposed to tell Zoey to get closer to the Gyarados, when she could perfectly understand the request herself?

 _"Remember, Blaziken. At best humans can only interpret what we're saying,"_ Absol told his teammate.

 _"Oh, that's right! Haha, I completely forgot about that!"_

Gyarados gave the fire-type a questioning look. Seeing this, Absol quickly stepped in.

 _"My apologies. The two of us haven't had many interactions with humans so far. Zoey is the first one with have ever met and she is… pretty good at interpreting our words,"_ the dark-type explained.

 _"HUH, THAT SO?"_ Gyarados looked at the woman and the boy again. The woman allowed herself to be dragged by her partner Pokémon towards Gyarados, while the boy was shouting at the two to get away from the monster Pokémon as quickly as possible.

 _"SHE GOT GUTS. I HAVE MET A LOT OF HUMANS THAT RUN FASTER THAN A RAPIDASH, WHEN THEY SEE MY FACE,"_ Gyarados told the dark-type with a smirk.

 _"I'll try to relay the compliment later."_

Zoey had to hold herself back from giggling at the exchange. She was wondering if it would have been a good idea to tell Ash that she could understand Pokémon. But that would have probably wasted a lot of time. Time they didn't have at the moment. As such, Zoey decided to get this over with quickly. Blaziken had taken her arm and led her towards the water and flying-type. When they were close enough, she moved her hands to Gyarados body herself and touched the serpent. Her eyes widened in surprise when she stroked over the scales.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed. "Okay, I take it back. Those scales are the toughest shit I have ever felt. And I got hit by a large rock to the face, so I know what I am talking about!"

Gyarados smirked proudly, whereas Absol and Blaziken flinched at the memory Zoey had brought up. Groudon had not been an easy opponent. The rock to the face comment was referring to one of the preferred ways the legend tried to get rid of the team.

 _"TOLD YA!"_

"Heh, almost makes me want to fight you," Zoey told the proud looking water-type. "If only I were a Pokémon," she lamented. "Then I could fight guys like you all day long. Sadly, as I am, you'd probably break all of my bones, before I could even say: Mew."

The Gyarados chuckled at the seemingly random comment. Ash and Pikachu, the latter still hiding behind a tree, were awing at the seemingly fearless woman in front of them. While they had been scared shitless by the gigantic Pokémon, she had just looked at the Gyarados like it was another Pidgey.

Absol and Blaziken, on the other hand, stood frozen in their places. Unbeknownst to the others, Zoey had just subtly relayed a message to them: she couldn't fight. In fact, from what they could interpret Zoey just said if she were forced to face someone like Articuno again, she would most likely die. This piece of information came to a shock to the two Pokémon.

Zoey had always been proud of being the strongest on the team. Even when Absol temporarily took that place, she pushed herself further to outclass him. She had once taken a Hyperbeam to the face and stood up again. This was no easy feat, as both could attest to having endured Rayquaza's Hyperbeam.

Blaziken and Absol looked with worry at their leader. Initially, they had assumed Zoey would be fighting alongside them again. They didn't know humans couldn't endure the attack of a Pokémon. Subconsciously both Pokémon moved closer to their human friend, ready to jump in, in case something happened. However, Gyarados' stomach decided to growl at this very moment. After quickly excusing himself, the water serpent went back under the water for lunch.

"You know, maybe we should recruit a Gyarados to the team. What do you think?  
… Uh, guys? You okay?"


	4. Chapter 4

Lunala still clearly remembered the first time she took off into the sky and felt the air rushing past her face. It had been so exhilarating back then, so much so that she didn't look where she was flying and crashed face-first into a mountain. Since she had only been a part ghost-type for a couple of hours, she had no idea how to make her body incorporeal as she knew now. The legendary pokémon chuckled at her own expense. It must have looked hilarious from an outsider's perspective. The accident, however, didn't deteriorate any enjoyment she felt every time she took off into the sky and blasted off to wherever she felt like it. In fact, it had become one of her favorite pastimes to simply look in one direction and fly as fast as she could until she was somewhere completely new.

Right now Lunala wasn't flying at top speed through the air. Instead, she was taking a leisure "stroll," enjoying the sights of the world below her. She wondered if any human had managed to take a picture of her, as she was passing by. Although, given the dark clouds in the sky, it was probably less likely. A downpour was coming soon that much was obvious. Pokémon and humans alike hid in their houses, caves or whatever nest they had built to wait out the bad weather. Such a shame. She was actually looking forward for the one or other reckless trainer to challenge her and subsequently try to catch her. Oh well, there would be plenty of opportunities for her to have fun.

For the time being, Lunala would enjoy the freedom that was the sky and worry about wannabe trainers later. Her mind briefly wandered to team Stardust, but she figured those three would be alright. Their reputation preceded them, and their story was so well known, it was part of the curriculum in Pokémon schools. They could handle a little drop off in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't even in the middle of nowhere. It was right between two human towns. So no worries there.

As Lunala's thoughts drifted like she did through the sky, she noticed that she had accidentally reached the ocean. The legendary pokémon stopped in mid-air and looked around the coast a little. She had no plans of leaving Kanto anytime soon, aside from one or two minor things. By reaching the ocean, she had arrived at the edge of the region. Oh well, at least she now knew where the sea was on this world.

Turning around, Lunala got ready to fly towards the mountain range in the distance, when something peculiar caught her interest. A little away from her, maybe half a mile, the clouds were splitting up, allowing the rays of the sun to shine entirely through. What was more, there was a rainbow going straight under the clouds, flying like a sky-serpent through the air. Of course, upon closer inspection, Lunala could see who was creating this weather phenomenon. And judging from the way he was flying, he was heading straight into the direction of where she left team Stardust. Lunala smirked to herself. If Ho-Oh somehow got it into his head to challenge the trio to a fight for whatever reason, he would be in for a surprise.

* * *

Zoey, Ash, Blaziken, Absol, and Pikachu in the meantime were booking it through the forest. The rain had started a couple of minutes ago and evolved into a downpour rather quickly. Zoey was so glad she was wearing winter clothes at the moment, as they were water repellent. That didn't stop her hair from getting soaked, though. The pokémon were not so lucky. Their fur or in Blaziken's case feathers soaked the water up like a sponge. Ash also had it bad, as his clothes were made for the spring/summer seasons and got soaked as well.

"Are you sure we're close to Viridian City?" Ash asked while running.

"Shouldn't you know better than me? You live here!" Zoey retorted, not looking back. "And yes, I am sure this is the way to Viridian City."

"But how? We're still in the forest!"

"Maybe because of the sign that we passed ten minutes ago saying Viridian City was this road down?"

"There was a sign?"

Zoey groaned, resisting the urge to facepalm. If Ash could overlook something as apparent as street signs, it was no wonder he always got lost on his journey. The boy would have probably died somewhere in Kanto if it wasn't for Misty and Brock deciding to join up with him. On that remark, Zoey wondered how high the mortality rate of ten-year-old kids was, given that a lot of them go on a Pokémon journey. It can't be zero, right?

 _"I really should have gone with the girl…"_ Pikachu complained.

 _"The girl?"_ Absol asked. _"What girl?"_

 _"Some human girl who with two human boys started her pokémon journey today. You guys are lucky to have her as your trainer."_

 _"Trainer? I am afraid I do not understand what you mean."_

 _"If anyone is our trainer, it's Makuhita,"_ Blaziken interjected. _"He had his own dojo and a lot of Pokémon trained under him, including Zoey."_

 _"Wait, what? I think you lost me there. Is this Makuhita guy like a martial artist or something?"_ Pikachu asked.

 _"Well, he is a fighting-type…"_ Blaziken began, but cut himself off, when Zoey out of nowhere stopped, causing him to run a few steps past her. He wanted to ask his partner why she stopped, but couldn't find his voice because of the scenery in front of him. The fire and fighting-type had seen his fair share of cities, but never anything as big as this. From the hill he was standing on he could easily overlook the entirety of what he assumed was Viridian City and oh boy, was there a lot to see.

The buildings were easily some of the tallest he had ever seen in his life. They were nothing compared to Rayquaza's Sky Tower, but when it came to the average size of a building a Pokémon owned, they were massive. The streets were made of some sort of black and polished rock with white markings painted on them. Occasionally there were trees planted throughout the city. One of the most prominent buildings of the town was in the distance. It distinguished itself from having a red roof.

 _"I'll say, there must be hundreds of humans living here,"_ Absol commented.

"Definitely way bigger than in the game," the two Pokémon heard their leader whisper to herself, a smile forming on her face.

"Oh hey, this must be Viridian City!" Ash exclaimed. "Phew, that's good. That means we don't have to sleep in the rain tonight."

"You didn't pack a tent, despite knowing you might walk for days, possibly even weeks between one city and the next?" Zoey asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, you didn't pack anything! You aren't even carrying a bag." Ash pointed at the woman.

Zoey pushed Ash arm down before answering. "That's because I am not planning to go on a journey around the entire country and competing in the biggest tournament in said region," she responded. "Although I am seriously considering joining in just for the heck of it," she admitted.

 _"A tournament?"_ Blaziken asked. _"And what do you mean by traveling across the country?"_

 _"I believe we should get out of this rain, before we begin our interrogation on Zoey,"_ Absol opined. _"I believe our conversation will be much more comfortable if we conduct it inside a hotel."_

 _"Guess you're right,"_ Blaziken nodded but was frowning none-the-less. Zoey made it no secret that she knew about this world and she had already promised to give them an explanation later. Still, he wondered just how his partner obtained any knowledge about this world.

"Oh, so, you live here?" Ash asked, oblivious to the Pokémon's small exchange. He was pointing down towards the town.

"Nope," the brunette answered easily. "But I do plan on staying there for at least the night. And if I decide to take a longer journey, I'm going to make sure I will be sufficiently equipped to take it."

"Uh…" Ash shook his head, not sure how to answer that. "Whatever. Let's just go down and get somewhere under. I'm starting to feel cold."

 _"Gotta agree with him on that part,"_ Pikachu said, wringing his tail like a wet towel.

"You can go if want," the adult human replied, casually leaning against Blaziken. "I am going to wait here for a little bit."

Everyone else gave the girl a questioning look.

"Huh? Weren't you the one insisting we had to get here as quickly as possible?" Ash asked with a dubious face.

"Yup. And now we're here. Though I guess we got here a little early, seeing as he is not here yet."

"He?" Ash and the Pokémon asked simultaneously.

Instead of answering verbally, Zoey grinned and pointed with her finger towards the sky. Her companions looked in the direction where her finger was pointing, and their eyes widened when they saw the rainclouds disappearing just like that.

 _"Are you using Sunny Day, Blaziken?"_ the Dark-type Pokémon asked.

 _"No, wasn't me. Hey, look! Over there!"_

Blaziken pointed his claw towards the sky, specifically towards a golden bird that was flying through the air, leaving a rainbow trail behind it.

"Whoa!/ _Whoa!"_ Ash and Pikachu said at the same time, watching in awe as the vast, golden flying-type graciously flew through the sky, the rainclouds disappearing as it did so.

"Ho-Oh, the legendary Pokémon of the Johto Region," Zoey explained. "He is a fire and flying-type and has an attack only he can learn, called Sacred Fire. According to a legend, it is said that Ho-Oh is capable of granting life to those who have perished. For fairly obvious reasons, Ho-Oh is sometimes referred to as the Rainbow Pokémon."

Zoey wondered if she should ask Blaziken to shoot a flamethrower at Ho-Oh to get the legend's attention. Not that she wanted to fight him, she simply wondered if he could help her figure out why Lunala decided to throw her teammates and herself into this world. But, of course, there was no guarantee Ho-Oh knew anything about Lunala, given that they were legendaries from different regions. Oh well, worth a shot, Zoey decided. She was about to give the order to Blaziken to fire away, yet noted that the bird was already too far away.

"Sheesh, someone seems to be in a hurry. Makes me wonder if something got his feathers ruffled," Zoey commented idly. It wasn't just an out of hand comment either. The woman did wonder what the legendary Pokémon of this world were up to. Only a handful of them had essential roles that required their constant attention. The rest could practically do whatever they wanted.

"How did you do that?!" Ash exclaimed, getting Zoey's attention.

"Huh? Did what?" she asked.

"How did you know that Pokémon was going to appear?!" the boy exclaimed, gesturing with both arms towards the now empty sky.

 _"I am rather curious myself,"_ Absol admitted.

 _"Yeah, I wanna know, too,"_ said Zoey's partner.

A small smirk appeared on the woman's lips before she answered: "That is my little shitty secret." She winked.

"Whaaat?!" Ash drawled out the word.

"Don't worry," she addressed Absol and Blaziken, looking at both of them. "I will tell you two once we're in a more private location," she assured her partners.

"Hey, that's not fair! Why are you going to tell them and not me?" Ash asked.

The brunette crossed her arms, frowning. "I have my reasons, Ash. And those reasons are frankly none of your business."

"Hey… that's mean" The black-haired boy appeared to be dejected at the sudden harsh tone the woman's voice had taken on. Zoey rolled her eyes, thinking the ten-year-old was overreacting.

"Come on. The sun is setting. Let's go to the Pokémon Center. They usually have rooms available for traveling trainers like you."

"You sure know a lot about being a trainer," Ash commented, as the group moved down the hill.

"Ash, aside from Ho-Oh, I have been telling you stuff that you're already supposed to know. Have you been sleeping in school or something, when they were talking about how to survive in the wild?"

"I don't remember that they ever taught us something like that."

This time Zoey did facepalm. "And they expect ten-year-old children like you to survive on their own?"

"Hey, I can look after myself. And I am not a child anymore. I am ten!" Ash defended himself.

"According to the law, you're still a child. And if I remember correctly, it's only thanks to Absol's disaster senses that neither you nor Pikachu have been turned into Swiss cheese by those Spearows earlier today."

The boy looked down to the ground dejectedly, conceding to Zoey's point. It had been a close call with all of those bird-pokémon coming at him and Pikachu.

 _"Why didn't you try to fight off those Pokémon? You had the type-advantage,"_ Blaziken pointed out.

 _"Are you crazy?! I am not as strong as you guys! I couldn't have taken them all on by myself! If only that stupid boy wouldn't have thrown that rock."_

Zoey looked back at the mouse-pokémon with one eye, before speaking up. "It doesn't look like Pikachu likes you much. How long have you known each other?" the woman asked.

"Well… I just got him today from Professor Oak. If only I hadn't overslept, then I would have gotten a Pokémon that would actually listen to me," the boy sulked. He looked over to Blaziken and Absol. "But you have no trouble getting those two to listen to you."

"Haven't you been wondering why Pikachu won't listen to you?"

"Hmm? I guess I did…" Ash answered, uncertainly. "I thought when a Pokémon is caught in a Pokéball they automatically listen to the one who caught them."

 _"Yeah, keep dreaming buddy. I'm not like the other guys. I like being an independent Pokémon."_

"I think I see the problem already," Zoey let out a sigh, shaking her head. "Ash, you and I are going to have a long talk, once we're at the Pokémon Center. From the looks of things, there are a lot of aspects about Pokémon that no one has ever bothered explaining to you."

 _"More like he has been dropped as a baby,"_ Pikachu muttered to himself.

 _"There's no need to be so mean to the child,"_ the fire-type growled at the electric-type.

 _"You would think the same if you would have seen him in action this morning. Trust me, buddy, this kid ain't all that bright up here."_ Pikachu tapped his paw against his forehead.

The human adult gave the electric-type a half-hearted glare, but at the same time, she couldn't disagree with him. This was mostly because, at this point in time, she knew Ash even better than Pikachu did. He was far from the brightest that much was true. She wondered if the "story" of this world would somehow get altered if she invested some time in making Ash at least decently capable of using his own brain matter. Something to consult Dialga and Celebi on.

The group was almost inside the city when they heard an announcement coming through the PA system. Zoey may remember this one wrong, but she was sure the officer Jennies sounded differently on TV. Eh, it might just be that her TV at home was an old piece of garbage.

Nevertheless, the lines the officer spoke were the same she said on TV, warning the citizens of Viridian City that Pokémon thieves had been spotted and to look out for any suspicious strangers.

"Pokémon thieves?!" Ash exclaimed aghast.

Zoey crossed her arms, frowning. "Thieves. They're straight-up kidnappers," she spat. "Thieves steal things, not living beings. I ought to have a word with the police officer."

Blaziken's and Absol's gazes hardened after hearing the announcement. Part of their duties as a rescue team was it to bring down wanted criminals and hand them over to the police. Over the years they had met all kinds of criminal scum, but kidnappers? Each of them could count the number of criminals on one hand that surpassed the ones the officer was warning the citizens about. Speaking of them, where were they?

 _"The streets are empty. Do you think it's because of those kidnappers?"_ Blaziken asked.

 _"Who knows? We should keep our eyes open."_

"Absol, anything on the disaster radar?" the brunette woman asked, looking at the dark-type with a serious expression. The Pokémon, in return, shook his head.

"Alright, but keep your eyes peeled. Just because your disaster senses aren't tingling, doesn't mean that there are idiots out there that think they can get the drop on us."

"But…" Ash stopped for a second. "Who would go out of their way and steal Pokémon? And why?" he asked, his voice being in disbelief.

"Do you want the list in alphabetical or chronological order?" Zoey asked in a deadpan. "The most common reason is greed. Strong Pokémon sell well on the Black Market, as well as rare ones. And don't even get me started on Cubone Skulls. Those people have no sense of morale. If you meet one of those thieves, don't hesitate to send Pikachu against them." She motioned her head towards the electric-type. "I mean it unless you don't want to end up in a cage, shock them good."

 _"Pff, those humans can't even keep me in a Pokéball. They'd never get me in a cage."_

Absol eyed his boss from the side and gave Blaziken a gentle nudge. The fire-type looked down quizzically and found his teammate motioning for him to lean in closer.

 _"Is it just me or does Zoey appear to be more angered than she usually is at criminals?"_ Absol asked.

 _"Well, we ARE talking about kidnappers here…"_ Blaziken replied. _"To be honest, I feel like kicking someone to the moon myself."_

 _"I think you're missing my point, Blaziken. I would naturally expect for Zoey to be angry, but-"_

"If we see any Pokémon thieves," Ash accidentally interrupted the dark-type, not realizing there had been a conversation going on, "shouldn't we call the police?"

"Those losers?" Zoey asked in a deadpan, surprising both of her partners at her choice of words. The two of them were more than aware that Zoey's opinion of any law enforcement that wasn't her team was pretty low, but to hear such a blatant insult coming from her mouth. "Don't rely on them. The only thing they're good for is for eating donuts and handing out parking tickets."

The ten-year-old boy was about to ask what that was supposed to mean when he froze in his tracks. He had just noticed a woman standing only a couple of feet away from the group. Said woman was wearing a police uniform, had her hands on her hips, and was giving all of them a harsh glare. Wondering why Ash had opened his mouth but wasn't saying anything, the others followed his gaze and found the aforementioned woman standing on the site of the road.

"Speak of Giratina…" Zoey muttered.

"Excuse me," the officer woman approached the group and was looking directly at the brunette woman.

 _"Oh, oh. Is that a police badge that human is wearing on its chest?"_ Blaziken asked nervously.

 _"Given the similarities to Officer Magnezone's badge, I would say this is most likely the case,"_ Absol replied, giving his boss an unimpressed look. _"I hope you can restrain yourself from making any further comments, Zoey."_

"I am sorry for eavesdropping like this, but I couldn't help but overhear what you just said," the woman said, after closing the distance between herself and Zoey. The brunette glared right back at the officer Jenny, not at all intimidated by the authority figure.

"You heard that? So, what are you going to do about it?" the brunette asked.

"What are you doing, Zoey?" Ash shouted in distress. "You better apologize to her, or she might arrest you!"

"Well, as I am the forgiving type, I'll only ask you to apologize. Unless you fancy yourself paying a fine for insulting a police officer," the woman stated sternly.

 _"Oh, man. And thanks to Lunala we don't have any money with us,"_ Blaziken bemoaned, walking up next to Zoey. The policewoman raised an eyebrow when she saw the to her unknown Pokémon put a hand on the brunette's shoulder and started speaking to her.

 _"Look, Zoey, I know you don't like the police, but this human isn't… you know she isn't one of them. So say you're sorry and let us get away from here. The last thing we need right now is trouble with the authorities."_

Zoey glanced over to her partner, seeing his worried expression. After a couple of seconds, the woman from another world took in a deep breath, before exhaling slowly.

"Fine," she told the fire and fighting-type. "Sorry for what I said. But it doesn't change my opinion of the police force being useless."

 _"What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us arrested?!"_ Zoey's partner shouted, shaking the woman.

"Useless?!" the officer repeated, shouting herself. "Madam, if you treating on thin ice here!"

"Am I now?" came the reply.

 _"Zoey, I won't hesitate to freeze your mouth if you don't watch what you say,"_ Absol growled.

The brunette pretended not to notice the dark-type and went on. "You're equipped with a gun, taser, pepper spray or even a simple baton. You also don't have any visible Pokéballs on you. And are those high heels you're wearing? How are you supposed to do any decent fieldwork with footwear like this?"

The woman huffed, opening one of her breast pockets and took out a red and white ball. "I have my partner right with me here. And I don't know how many action movies you have seen madam, but the list of items you mentioned are only issued if necessary."

Zoey couldn't believe what she was hearing. So the reason the officer, Jenny in front of her, wasn't carrying any of the standard equipment a policeman back at home would have with her was because there was no visible threat?

"Wow… just…" the brunette couldn't find the words to say. She was too used seeing police officers being issues military guns whenever a festival or something similar was going on in her hometown — the sheer naivety of the people in this world.

"Please tell me your partner is at least properly trained and, please tell me this isn't the only Pokémon with you," Zoey spoke in an almost pleading tone.

"Of course, Growlithe is very well trained, like any Pokémon on the force!" the woman declared proudly.

"Growlithe…" Zoey said slowly. "Not Arcanine, simply a Growlithe. And you have no one else on you?"

"There's no need for another Pokémon on my team. Growlithe is one of the best we have on the force."

Blaziken and Absol were eyeing the two woman carefully. Both of them were wondering where this supposed Growlithe was, as all they saw was just a tiny ball.

"Right, that's it. Officer Jenny, I challenge you to a one on one battle!"

"Say what?!" Ash shouted. "You're going to fight a police officer?! Have you lost it?"

 _"Zoey…"_ Absol got ready to shoot a controlled ice beam.

"If you win, I will write an official one-page apology for everything I said and additionally pay the fee for insulting a police officer."

 _"But we don't have any money with us…"_ the fire and fighting-type repeated.

 _"And here I thought she was a smart human,"_ Pikachu muttered.

As for Officer Jenny herself, she looked quite baffled by the challenge issued to her. However, that expression was quickly replaced with a smirk on her face.

"Seeing as I can't just let you sully the honor of the force like that, I will happily accept the challenge."

"Well, at least you have a backbone," Zoey nodded approvingly. "Is there a place near the Pokémon Center where we can fight? You know, just in case someone gets seriously injured."

"The backyard of the Center has a small arena traveling trainers use," Jenny replied. "And I see you at least care about your Pokémon. That's more than I can say of other people. Wait here, I'll get the car and drive us to the center."

The woman turned around and walked back to the police station. Zoey's teammates were giving her a look that said they were less than impressed with her. As for the brunette herself, she had a smirk written all over her place.

"Hook. Line. And sinker," she declared.

 _"Wait, you planned this?!"_ Blaziken shouted. _"Why?! What's the point?!"_

"Heh," she gave her partner a wink. "You'll see," she whispered. (Looks like the end of Team Rocket will come sooner than I anticipated.) The brunette thought gleefully.


	5. Chapter 5

Zoey had to hold back a laugh at the disbelieving looks her two teammates were giving her. Truth to be told, she only came up with that plan five minutes ago, as she, Ash, Blaziken, Absol, and Pikachu were entering the city. Now that the woman thought about it, there might have been a better way of handling this situation. But what was done was done. She now had to stick to her guns and hope everything would go well.

 _"Zoey,"_ Absol spoke up in a tone that sounded like he was having trouble keeping his composure. _"While I am ready to trust you with my life, I think I speak for everyone if you would tell us what exactly you are planning."_

Blaziken nodded in agreement, giving his leader a look that said he was less than impressed with her behavior in front of the Officer. The blaze Pokémon had his arms crossed and was tapping a claw repeatedly on his arm. It reminded the human of the look her mother would give her when she misbehaved in some way or another.

The patience of her teammates when it came to her secrecy was running thin. Zoey hoped it would last long enough until she finally had a chance to talk to them without the risk of Ash or Pikachu listening in to their conversation. She was trying to think of an excuse that was temporarily satisfying the two Pokémon, but luckily Officer Jenny came to her rescue. From behind the police building, she drove up in a police van, which startled both Pokémon not native to this world.

 _"What is that?!"_ the fire and fighting-type exclaimed, jumping in front of Zoey. Absol didn't vocalize his surprise, but jumped nonetheless and took on an aggressive stance while eyeing the vehicle. Ash and Pikachu were both dumbfounded at the behavior of the Pokémon. As for the brown-haired woman, she couldn't contain her laughter. Of course, it wasn't nice laughing over the shocked faces of one's friends. But she couldn't help herself in this case. It was just the way their eyes seemed to be bulging out of their sockets that made this scene particularly funny. Although, she wasn't expecting her companions to be this surprised upon seeing a car for the first time.

"Sorry, sorry," Zoey held up her hands in a peaceful matter. Her friends had been less than impressed with her laughing at them. "It's just. You two should have seen your faces." A snicker escaped her mouth.

 _"Well, excuse us for not being familiar with human… things."_ Absol's voice was dripping with sarcasm. The dark-type eyed the vehicle suspiciously. _"What is this… contraption?"_

"It's a car. We humans use them to travel long distances when we don't feel like going on foot. We also use them to transport things we can't carry with our arms." Zoey gave her friends a brief explanation.

"Why do you tell them what a car is?" Ash voiced Pikachu's and Officer Jenny's question. The latter came out of the van a moment ago and managed to hear the last part of the explanation.

"Oh, that? It's 'cause this is the first time those two" Zoey gestured at her teammates "have ever been to a human city. In fact, the good Officer here is only the third human they have ever met."

"Say what?!" the police officer exclaimed in surprise. "Are you telling me you caught those two recently?"

The blue-haired woman didn't miss the sour look the brown-haired one was giving her. For a brief moment, the otherworldly woman contemplated punching the Officer in the face. Luckily, she had more than enough rational left to not go through with that action. Instead, Zoey opted to ignore the policewoman's question and walked up to the car. She made a quick hand gesture, signaling the Pokémon to follow her. They did so, but it wasn't like they didn't hear what Officer said.

 _"What does she mean with caught us?"_ Blaziken asked, completely and utterly confused.

"Tell you when we're done with her," she said just loud enough for her two friends to pick up.

 _"We? Done with her?"_ Absol echoed. _"Excuse me, Zoey, but I have a harder and harder time following your thought process. Is it perhaps possible to give us a little information about the overall situation?_

Zoey stopped a couple of steps away from the van and turned to the dark-type. She was about to give a response when she realized something. She smacked her head with her palm.

"I… I never explained to you two how Pokémon battles work here, did I?"

The two Rescue Team members looked at their leader even more confused than they were before. Likewise, Pikachu, Ash, and the Officer were equally wondering why the brown-haired woman felt the need to tell her Pokémon how battles work.

"Okay, listen up guys, this is important. You see, a lot of humans are at some point in their lives Pokémon trainers?"

 _"Pokémon trainers?"_ Blaziken and Absol asked at the same time.

"The name is pretty self-explanatory. Humans help Pokémon become stronger. They usually do that by setting up a training regime and sometimes even helping their partners learn new attacks. You guys follow so far?"

Absol nodded.

 _"So, they're like Makuhita?"_ the fire-type asked.

Zoey gave a small nod to the question. "In order to measure how far Pokémon have come in their training, trainers let their partners fight against other trained Pokémon. It's a popular sport around these parts with tournaments and everything. Supposedly there's lots of prizemoney involved."

 _"Prizemoney?!"_ Blaziken exclaimed. For a moment, both Zoey and Absol swore they saw Poké signs in the fire-type's eyes. The human woman smiled wryly. Her old partner had a lot of good qualities, but like everybody else, he had his faults. His biggest one was his greed. Sure, he would help Pokémon readily, even if they could not pay. But when it came to the job bulletin, he would always look for the most paying job. Alternatively, he would choose those that had the most valuable items as a reward.

"Outside of those tournaments, Pokémon Trainers will occasionally challenge each other for a friendly match or to settle a score or something."

 _"I see,"_ Absol nodded. _"You need us to act as your partners. For a moment, I was under the impression you would fight the other human woman."_

Zoey sheepishly looked away. "Yeah, I kinda need you two for this. I'm sorry for throwing you two under the bus like that. I'll give you two a back massage for the trouble."

Blaziken let out a chuckle. _"I'll hold you up to this. But still, why did you pick a fight with her?"_

"After the battle. I promise."

Zoey then turned her attention to Ash, Jenny, and Pikachu, who were all looking at her with question marks on their faces. "What's the holdup, Officer? At this rate, we'll have our fight in the dark." Zoey grinned arrogantly. "Don't tell me you're already admitting defeat?"

 _"Don't provoke her!"_

XXX

Zoey didn't have any Pokéballs on her. The entire concept of catching Pokémon was utterly foreign to her teammates. As such, it was doubtful that even if she had some balls that they would willingly go into one. Truth to be told, the human herself wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about the whole catching part of this world.

Feelings aside, no Pokéballs meant Absol and Blaziken had to take a seat inside the car. Zoey had to help both of them to put their seatbelts on and gave strict instructions not to fiddle with them.

"These are for your safety. My dad almost died once in an accident because his seatbelt was faulty. Left a pretty impressive scar on his chest. After he was stuck in the hospital for months, that is."

Both Pokémon nodded grimly at the instructions they were given. They knew when their leader's no-nonsense face came out, she expected you to listen to her orders to a "t."

Ash, who was sitting in between the Pokémon in the back, asked a question.

"Why don't you simply put them in a Pokéball? Don't they like their balls, like Pikachu?"

Incidentally, the electric-type decided to sit on Blaziken's lap, as he was still not too keen on hanging around the newbie trainer.

"Weren't you listening earlier? They don't even know what a Pokéball is."

 _"Lucky them,"_ Pikachu muttered.

"And you have seen how they reacted to the car. How do you think they're going to react when they see a Pokéball in action?" Zoey sat down shotgun next to Officer Jenny and put her belt on.

"Most wild Pokémon don't react at all," the police officer pointed out, starting the car.

"The Pokémon you're speaking of have regular human contact. I met those two at a place I wasn't even supposed to be in, namely a nature preserve."

"What were you doing at a nature preserve?"

"Got lost during the holiday. Met Blaziken when he was still a Torchic."

"A Torchic? Never seen one of those," the Officer commented.

"Absols and Torchics were first spotted in Hoenn. You'll be especially hard-pressed to find an Absol, no matter where you go. They're extremely rare, no thanks to that even nowadays people believe that Absols bring disaster wherever they go."

"Is this some kind of superstition?"

"Yes and no. Absols have a sixth sense that allows them to sense incoming disasters. They usually try to warn people about whatever is going wrong. But because they were only seen when something went wrong, the superstition was born." Zoey sighed and looked back. "Remember that day, when it was all sunny, no cloud in the sky, and you sensed a thunderstorm coming?"

 _"Only all too well. The day after, we had to rebuild your roof in its entirety. And your fur was completely soaked."_

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don't you?" The brown-haired woman rolled her eyes and turned back. "On that day, I learned never to doubt his instincts. Also, I forced Torchic to learn Sunny Day. Or at least I tried, but he never got it right."

 _"Hey, weather attacks are hard to learn! You could have tried learning it yourself."_

Zoey let out a grumble. Back then, she didn't know her species could learn weather attacks. In fact, it could learn two. Not that it mattered anymore. She was human now. The only way for her to ever gain any attacks, was if she got her hands on the research regarding Mewtwo and maybe did some science-fiction on her body.

…

Now here was a thought.

XXX

The entire drive didn't take very long, even though the Center was almost on the other side of the town. There were barely any cars on the street for some reason, let alone other humans or Pokémon. When she stepped out of the van, Zoey made a mental note of the bike standing outside of the Pokémon center. After helping her teammates out of the vehicle, the group walked a little down the road. Officer Jenny took her position a little away from Zoey and her teammates.

Ash and Pikachu stood on the sidelines, the former having a grim look on his face. He was genuinely worried about the woman and her Pokémon because she saved his life earlier. He didn't want her to get into any trouble.

As for the electric-type, he was genuinely curious about the outcome of this battle. He had seen the kind of damage Absol and Blaziken did earlier today.

"Alright! Come out, Growlithe!" Officer Jenny retrieved a red and white ball from her pocket and threw it into the air. It burst open, and a white light came out of the ball, landing on the ball. In a matter of moments, the light formed into a Growlithe, who sat at attention.

 _"Reporting for duty!"_

The now-empty ball landed on the ground and somehow bounced back into the Officer's hand. Zoey was sure the laws of physics just send out a complaint to Arceus.

 _"What?! Where'd he come from?!"_ Blaziken exclaimed.

"Those are the Pokéballs we talked about earlier. You can transport Pokémon in them. Don't ask me how it works or why anyone would go in one of them on purpose. Supposedly they're pretty comfortable."

 _"I… have a hard time imagining the last part…"_ Absol stated, not comfortable with the situation whatsoever.

"Well, if they're good for anything, it is if one of you would get knocked out, I could put you in one of the balls and bring you to the next best Pokémon Center." Zoey shrugged. "Anyway, I now need to ask one of you to beat up the poor puppy officer."

 _"I am not a puppy!"_ the Growlithe barked.

Blaziken and Absol looked at each other for a moment. _"I'll do it."_ The fire-type stepped up and took on a fighting stance. The dark-type moved right next to Zoey.

"Are you ready?" Officer Jenny shouted.

"I am. The question is, if you're ready for the hospital bill?"

"Cocky, aren't you? Growlithe! Let's start with Flamethrower!"

"He knows Flamethrower?" Zoey asked with a raised eyebrow. It seemed like this puppy wasn't as weak as she expected it to be.

Growlithe obliged the command. He took in a deep breath and shot out the fire attack. Zoey made a mental note on how long it took the pup to wind up the attack. Blaziken jumped forward, but slightly to the side, successfully dodging the attack.

Ash "oohed" in surprise. It looked like the fire-type was flying centimeters above the air. He landed safely right next to the Growlithe.

"Watch out!" Jenny shouted, but the puppy was too slow. With a swing of his leg, Blaziken kicked Growlithe against the head. With a loud whine, the dog flew across the area until he landed on the sidewalk.

"Growlithe?! Are you alright?" Officer Jenny shouted.

 _"Chickenwings~"_ the police dog slurred.

"Wait, he's out cold already?" Zoey asked in disbelieve. She knew her partner was strong, but that kick didn't look like it should take out a trained police officer. She should know. She had fought Pokémon that were police officers. They took their job seriously. Well, more or less, but that was a story the leader would love to forget.

"Growlithe?! Come on, stand up!"

But Growlithe was indeed out for the count. Ash and Pikachu stared in awe, the former mumbling something about "just one hit."

 _"Hey, are you okay?"_ Blaziken asked.

 _"That was anti-climatic. Is every Officer in this world so weak?"_ Absol asked.

"I sure hope not," Zoey mumbled.

Seeing that she had truly lost, embarrassingly so, Officer Jenny recalled her partner with a downcast expression. Blaziken and Absol watched with wary eyes as the red light hit the Growlithe and then seemingly sucked the Pokémon into the ball.

"Officer Jenny!" Zoey called out, not wanting the woman to go into the Pokémon Center just yet. "You have no more Pokémon to call out. There's nobody at the police station to radio to. You're unarmed, and even if you're trained in self-defense, I doubt you could put up much of a fight in high heels."

The brown-haired woman stepped up to the Officer, as she told the next part. "Now tell me. What exactly is stopping my friends and me to rush into the Pokémon Center, which has dozen of injured Pokémon inside, grab them and their balls and make a run for the hills? I tell you what nothing! Absol can just encase you in ice, making you unable to call for help! The Chanseys inside are healers, not fighters! That boy," she gestured at Ash, "has been a trainer for less than a day! If I wanted to, I could go nuts right now and burn this building to the ground!"

Absol's and Blaziken's eyes widened in understanding. Now they got why Zoey wanted to fight the policewoman. It wasn't because of her hate towards the police. It was to show the human female the weakness in the local security. Now that Zoey had pointed it for everyone out, it was a pretty glaring flaw.

"What are you standing around? Your partner needs medical attention, and he needs it now! Why else do you think I wanted us to fight in front of the Center?"

Officer Jenny was taken aback by how brazen the other woman was being with her. Her pride as a police officer demanded that she made some kind of retort. The problem was that pride had been shattered only moments ago. It was true. If a criminal now did something, anything, the Officer would be unable to apprehend the suspect. Her partner was knocked out, and she had nothing on herself to defend herself with. Not that she could ever hope to keep up with a Pokémon.

With shame, the policewoman quickly retreated to the Pokémon Center. Ash and Pikachu watched as she ran towards the building, both stunned silent.

 _"That's why you picked a fight with her,"_ Blaziken voiced his thoughts. _"Everything you said earlier makes sense now."_

"One police officer to defend an entire city is a recipe for disaster. Honestly, I am surprised the city is still standing."

At this moment, Ash and Pikachu approached the Rescue Team. "Hey, uh… don't you think you were a little harsh on the Officer?" the boy asked in an uneasy tone. Zoey crossed her arm.

"Harsh? I was going easy on her."

"That was going easy?!" Ash exclaimed. "She looked like she was about to cry."

Zoey scoffed. "If she cried from this little tirade, she has no place at the police. Her job is to protect others. But how is she supposed to do that if she can't even protect herself?" The brown-haired woman shook her head.

"I need to cool off. Sorry Ash, Pikachu, I think I'm gonna take a short walk with my pals. In case you didn't know, Pokémon Centers double as motels for trainers. Since it's about to get dark, I suggest you check-in. Laters."

With a casual wave of her arm, Zoey turned around and began walking down the street. Her partners quickly followed her, positioning themselves on each of her sides.

XXX

"Sorry for using you two like this," she spoke five minutes later.

 _"It's alright. Next time though, tell us your plan beforehand. I was worried you got angry for no reason,"_ Blaziken replied.

"Yeah, I didn't plan this one through," Zoey admitted. "Anyways, now that we're finally alone, how about we sit down on the bench over there? You two must be dying for answers right now."

The Pokémon were relieved to hear that their leader would finally provide them with an explanation. After all of them took a seat on the bench, Zoey wrapped her arms around both of her partners.

"So, you two are wondering why I know so much about this world? Even though this isn't my world, right? Well, let's start with a question. Have you two ever heard about the multiverse theory?"

 _"The multi- what?"_ Blaziken asked, confused.

 _"I cannot say I have. I assume it has something to do with your knowledge?"_ Absol asked.

Zoey nodded. "The very short version is that there are an infinite amount of worlds out there. Those worlds or universes are separated by an invisible barrier. As far as my knowledge goes, only two Pokémon can break those barriers and travel from one world to another. Their names are Solgaleo. And Lunala."

Both Pokémon tensed up upon hearing the second name.

"But those two don't matter right now. What matters is that the worlds I mentioned are either very similar to our own or vastly different. Imagine a world where only certain Pokémon live. Imagine a world where Pokémon live we have never seen before." Zoey took in a deep breath. "And now imagine a world where Pokémon aren't real and only appear as fantasy creatures in a story. That's my world."


End file.
